Rho Ophiuchi and Beyond - Summer special part II

[Uranium235]

Another trip out to the dark site (this time I didnt forget anything!), and another two panels added to this rather tricky horizon-hugging mosaic.

The background brightness didnt level out until nearly halfpast midnight, so thats probably telling me to give it a rest for a few weeks while the solstice passes. Really, I used to like the Summer... cant stand the blummin thing now! too hot, too many flies, not enough darkness. One thing I've learnt while out at the dark site.... dont leave the car windows open! As before I set of home I had to clear out loads of little flies that had decided to take up residence in the car... fortunately not the biting variety - but annoying nonetheless.

Although there are only two panels left to do, I will probably re-shoot the central (third) panel because it still looks a bit noisy to me. One thing I do like is that when you get in to the meat of the central Milky Way region, that dark stuff really does stand out without too much effort in processing.

So... thats it for a few weeks, I'll probably pick it up again around July's new moon.

 

10x240 (L)  x5 panels

Samyang 135mm @f2, Atik 383L+, NEQ6

Thanks for looking!

 

 

 

[al-alami]

Looks great so far

[swag72]

That's looking great  The dark stuff is stand out gorgeous as is all the dust...... This is a fine result so far and I love it as a letter box framing too

[Uranium235]

Just now, swag72 said:

That's looking great  The dark stuff is stand out gorgeous as is all the dust...... This is a fine result so far and I love it as a letter box framing too

Cheers Sara, its just a shame the image isnt displayed slightly larger when posted. It seems to have compressed it a little.

[peter shah]

one of my favourite parts of the sky....looking good

[Ibbo!]

very nice, as you say needs to be viewed full size .

[laser_jock99]

Looking good.

Know what you mean about summer. Unbearably warm and light all night. Probably won't start imaging till september myself.

[wxsatuser]

Coming along nicely.

I can just see Antares from the front garden but it's not an imaging area for me, so nice to see it.

 

[DaveS]

A great image Rob.

My southern horizon (What passes for an horizon) is buried in light pollution from a big retail park. Antares is visible, but only just, plus a bare handful of the brighter stars of Scorpio.

Got a holiday booked in Dorset for the August new moon, so maybe I'll have a look then. Last time I was there the Milky Way was visible to the horizon.

[ollypenrice]

Lawks, this is low for us at Lat 44! Well done. Incredibly well done. If you'd asked me beforehand if you could get result from the UK I'd have said no and been roundly wrong.

Olly

[Davey-T]

Coming along nicely Rob, as with others here my views in that direction are somewhat restricted, can just glimpse Antares between the trees for an hour.

Dave

My view

 

[Uranium235]

5 hours ago, DaveS said:

A great image Rob.

My southern horizon (What passes for an horizon) is buried in light pollution from a big retail park. Antares is visible, but only just, plus a bare handful of the brighter stars of Scorpio.

Got a holiday booked in Dorset for the August new moon, so maybe I'll have a look then. Last time I was there the Milky Way was visible to the horizon.

Cheers Dave!

I think by August, Antares is all but gone - but the main portion of the MW core should still be up, worth taking a DSLR and very short FL lens for.

[Uranium235]

4 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Lawks, this is low for us at Lat 44! Well done. Incredibly well done. If you'd asked me beforehand if you could get result from the UK I'd have said no and been roundly wrong.

Olly

Gotta be in it to win it mate   Shooting that low doesnt come without its problems, as there was a fair gradient to deal with on each panel. There are still a couple of issues I'd like to iron out once I have the last two panels (ie: get a bit more contrast into the Antares nebula), but I think I got lucky with Saturn... I was expecting a ton of trouble from that but no flare seems present. I've taken inspiration for this project from the images Martin Campbell produces - he does some cracking galactic core shots, albeit from the South of France!

But I'll mark darn sure the next project is much higher up so I can throw longer subs at it without the histo creeping right too much.

[peter shah]

For some reason I had this in my head it was imaged outside the UK. This makes it even more remarkable, a superb achievement from your location. How long is it image-able (if that's even a word) for you during an evening?

[DaveS]

42 minutes ago, Uranium235 said:

Cheers Dave!

I think by August, Antares is all but gone - but the main portion of the MW core should still be up, worth taking a DSLR and very short FL lens for.

Thanks Rob.

I'll be going to a place near Marloes in Pembrokeshire for the July full moon as well. Planning to get a Star Adventurer to put my ASI 1600 on with FW. Not yet sure about the lens, I've a good few Leica primes to chose from.

[Uranium235]

38 minutes ago, peter shah said:

For some reason I had this in my head it was imaged outside the UK. This makes it even more remarkable, a superb achievement from your location. How long is it image-able (if that's even a word) for you during an evening?

Not outside the UK Peter   it was taken at an airstrip about half an hours drive from here (between Cleobury Mortimer and Ludlow). Its a remarkably flat area of land, so I can get as much data as there is darkness at this time of year by working against the rotation of the Earth (which is where imaging at f2 comes in very handy!). Last weekend the airstrip owner had some campers on the field too, so I popped over to say hi.... which gives me an idea in that during late summer or early autumn I could take the tent out there for a mini star party   I'd just need another leisure battery to ensure I have enough juice on tap for the whole night.

One other thing I remember, on the way back the moonrise was stunning from there - so much so that I found it quite distracting while driving along the dark country lanes.

With luck I should have it done by the end of July. I have two other windows of opportunity pencilled in for July and August, and I've already booked the time off work so all I need now is for the weather to play ball.

[peter shah]

26 minutes ago, Uranium235 said:

Not outside the UK Peter   it was taken at an airstrip about half an hours drive from here (between Cleobury Mortimer and Ludlow). Its a remarkably flat area of land, so I can get as much data as there is darkness at this time of year by working against the rotation of the Earth (which is where imaging at f2 comes in very handy!). Last weekend the airstrip owner had some campers on the field too, so I popped over to say hi.... which gives me an idea in that during late summer or early autumn I could take the tent out there for a mini star party   I'd just need another leisure battery to ensure I have enough juice on tap for the whole night.

One other thing I remember, on the way back the moonrise was stunning from there - so much so that I found it quite distracting while driving along the dark country lanes.

With luck I should have it done by the end of July. I have two other windows of opportunity pencilled in for July and August, and I've already booked the time off work so all I need now is for the weather to play ball.

Fingers crossed you get the clear skies on those dates. I do get good views of Antares from here and have thought about trying it. But with its fleeting fly-by across the horizon I've always thought about going to a better location to image it....never got around to it. Your image has really made think hard about giving it a go from here.

It would be interesting to do an overlay from an image from further South and compare how much atmospheric refraction you have in yours.

Peter

[Uranium235]

2 hours ago, peter shah said:

Fingers crossed you get the clear skies on those dates. I do get good views of Antares from here and have thought about trying it. But with its fleeting fly-by across the horizon I've always thought about going to a better location to image it....never got around to it. Your image has really made think hard about giving it a go from here.

It would be interesting to do an overlay from an image from further South and compare how much atmospheric refraction you have in yours.

Peter

Thanks Peter, I'll give it my best shot!

If your location is anywhere near as dark as the one I found (and I suspect it is!) then its worth having a go at just to see if its possible. Just work quickly from right to left so youre always pointed at roughly the same altitude, plus your optics are fairly rapid so you might be in with a chance. It definitely would be nice to travel somewhere to do this properly, but probably not until the kids are a bit older.

Once I have a complete set of data I will be able to look more closely at the processing, so the background levels outside of the MW are lower - which should help with sorting some of the dust out.

[PatrickGilliland]

Thats stonking for want of a better tech term  Loving it so far (will it end ?)

[Barry-Wilson]

Well deserved plaudits Rob.  Keep the new data coming .

[Uranium235]

4 hours ago, PatrickGilliland said:

Thats stonking for want of a better tech term  Loving it so far (will it end ?)

Cheers mate

Nope its not the end yet im taking it over to M22 - which should be another two panels. Im hoping not going to have to crop too much out due to sky curvature, the raw stack for the left hand panel (#5) originally had part of M8 and the triffid on it before I had to crop them out to get the edges tidy.

Im not going out again to the dark site for a few weeks, which will be fine since M8 - M22 will still be in a good position during July & Aug.

[PatrickGilliland]

50 minutes ago, Uranium235 said:

Cheers mate

Nope its not the end yet im taking it over to M22 - which should be another two panels. Im hoping not going to have to crop too much out due to sky curvature, the raw stack for the left hand panel (#5) originally had part of M8 and the triffid on it before I had to crop them out to get the edges tidy.

Im not going out again to the dark site for a few weeks, which will be fine since M8 - M22 will still be in a good position during July & Aug.

Sounds cool to me.  Should be a super end result.  Have you got a wall wide enough to hang it on?